BlackRock's new Bitcoin fund is immensely popular: the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) set a new trading day record today, attracting close to $3.8 billion in volume.
Nasdaq data shows that IBIT's trading volume was $3.75 billion—smashing the previous record of $3.3 billion set just last week.
The trading actions come as Bitcoin's price hit a new high earlier today. The biggest cryptocurrency broke above $69,000 per coin on America's biggest crypto exchange, Coinbase—although it then dropped quickly and is now priced at $63,500, according to CoinGecko.
BlackRock Seeks to Add Bitcoin ETFs to Its Strategic Portfolio
Global investment giant BlackRock filed a prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday that laid out the firm's plan to add new Bitcoin exchange-traded funds to its strategic portfolio. Dubbed the Strategic Income Opportunities Fund, BlackRock will include investments in Bitcoin among its other offerings, highlighting the risks of each. “The fund may acquire shares in exchange-traded products (ETPs) that seek to reflect generally the performance of the price of Bitcoin b...
IBIT is one of the new spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) trading in the U.S. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said yes to the products on January 11, and they've been drawing massive interest ever since.
Currently, 10 of the funds are trading in the U.S. and all of them are seeing large inflows of cash except for one: the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which converted from a a trust to an ETF and prompted long-time investors to cash out.
The funds trade on stock exchanges and allow investors to buy shares that track the price of Bitcoin. This way, investors don't need to worry about where to store the asset.
Today, the 10 Bitcoin ETFs did more than $10 billion in trading volume—a new record.
What is Bitcoin?
—Bitcoin started it all. It was the first cryptocurrency, and it launched an industry that now includes thousands. But who invented it, how does it work, and why is it so important? What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin (BTC) is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. Think of it as a digital token. You can't physically touch or hold Bitcoins, and all Bitcoin transactions are logged on a public, decentralized, immutable ledger. The first official purchase using Bitcoin was for pizza in May 2010. Two pizzas from Papa...
BlackRock is the world's biggest fund manager and, therefore, the most prestigious and well-known brand with a Bitcoin product. IBIT now has over $10 billion in assets under management and has experienced the biggest inflows.
The fund manager hopes to get a spot Ethereum ETF approved by the SEC. Yesterday, the regulator delayed a decision on the fund for the second time. The fund would give investors exposure to the second-biggest digital asset by market cap.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
